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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Original versus Sequel

Boy, I'm on a roll...the last post got to me thinking again...has there ever been instances where I liked the sequel or even the remake better than the original? This answer is a bit more complicated. I'm not a fan of remakes, in TV, movie and definitely not in music form. I don't understand them. Come up with your own stuff, don't redo someone elses.

But on the sequel subject, there have been several instances where #2 or #3 were better than the first, and since I'm on the subject of vampires a lot lately, Interview With The Vampire is a prime example. Anne Rice threw a fit when they cast Tom Cruise as Lestat. She said she got over it once she saw his performance...I'm still not over it. Interview was the first "real" book I ever read, when I was really way to young to be reading such material, but it holds a very special place in my heart. That, IMO, is one of the worst casting choices in movie history. The sequel, Queen Of The Damned, in a word, bombed, at the box office. Stuart Townsend took over the role of Lestat and he was PERFECT! The movie was choppy, it actually combined book 2, The Vampire Lestat and 3, The Queen Of The Damned, and unless you had read the books, it was hard to follow the movie, but I didn't care. The cinematography was beautiful, the music was wonderful, and Stuart, well, I'm still crushing on him!

Another sequel that was so much better than the first was Pet Sematary. I had read that book (at another inappropriate age) and loved it, and expected alot out of the movie, and got practically nothing. The second, aptly titled Pet Sematary 2, had Anthony Edwards (who I love), Clancy Brown (who I also love) and it was scary as hell! But, as above, it also bombed. I still can't figure it out!

Anyone who works in the medical field and has been in a hospital at night, knows that Halloween 2 (the original Jamie Lee Curtis version, not these crappy remakes), is one of the scariest movies of all time! I still sometimes have nightmares over that one and Michael Myers doesn't scare me!

What does scare me? Freddy Krueger...since day one. But this "best of" order is a bit messed up...the remake in no way, shape, form or fashion, makes the list. One is the scariest, two sucks, three - The Dream Warriors, totally rocks, then they suck all the way to seven, which probably no one has seen, called A New Nightmare, but it had most of the original cast, only they were playing themselves, aka, Robert Englund was playing Robert and Heather Langenkamp was Heather and even Wes Craven was playing Wes, and they were making a movie, but guess who was also there...yep...Mr. Lack O' Moisturizer! Love that one! Right up there with number one on scariness!

The Dark Shadows TV remake in the early 90's was absolutely amazing! Ben Cross, in my mind, will always be either a priest or a vamp, it's all he seems to ever play! I loved it! I was crushed when it got cancelled! I am curious to see how Tim Burton does with it (because I absolutely worship Tim), but I am a bit scared because I have Ben in my mind as Barnabas. Ben Cross is amazingly hot, even as he gets older!

Remake wise, Thirteen Ghosts and House On Haunted Hill totally blew away their originals, but only because their originals were a bit cheesy (OK, a lot cheesy), but don't get me started on the remake of The Haunting...shame on you Liam Neeson!

Again, I don't count the Austens because they are entities among themselves (but I like Matthew McFadyen better as Darcy than Colin Firth - sacrilege to my British brethren, but I can't help it, if they'd only cast better than Keira Knightly!).

But remake-wise on the bad side...how dare they touch April Fools Day! Sacrilege part deux!! And Willy Wonka...ugh!! The only time I've wanted to flog Tim Burton! Johnny better not do to Barnabas Collins what he did to Wonka!! I'll walk out of the theater (and the last time I did that was when Kiefer Sutherland got killed in Young Guns II).

To get out of the horror genre though, Another Cinderella Story is way better than A Cinderella Story (bet I'm the only person that has seen either one of them!). But Drew Seeley has that great Disney hottie vibe going and he and Selena Gomez had a a real chemistry and Hilary Duff is just annoying.

I just don't like remakes...I don't get it (as I've said before). I do watch Hawaii 5-0, but just because of Alex O'Loughlin, another one of my favorite vamps (Moonlight anyone?) and every single week I say that it's my last week to watch it. I especially hate remakes of shows or movies or songs that are from my generation...talk about a kick in the teeth! At least remake something that is from before I was born (although considering my voracious appetite for entertainment, I've probably seen most of those as well). It's no different that robbing the Brits and their shows...surely someone in Hollywood can come up with an original idea? If not, maybe it's time for a Hollywood revamp (no pun intended!).